Considering a Scarlet as a Stills Camera; Good, Bad, or Indifferent?

[David Bitton]

My wife is thinking about buying a Scarlet as a stills camera. Is anyone here using one as such? She is currently shooting a Nikon D4 and a D800 so the ability to use existing lenses is appealing. Does this make sense as a camera? Thanks!

 

[Bob Gundu]

I also have those Nikons and my epic won't be replacing them. What type of photography does your wife do?

 

[Chris Harless]

We use it all the time for our Print/Ad work for clients.

The form factor of course is a challenge. For handheld stuff, accessorize correctly, or you'll feel it. Obviously much heavier and cubersome than a traditional DSLR.

But for us it's great that when we are shooting a video/spot for clients we can pull stills that can be used in accompanying print work.

A 5k frame translates to a 9x17 300dpi image. Which will basically take care of a whole page spread at 1:1.

 

[Jack Shanahan]

I would definetly say no to this. The scarlet is worlds apart from a nikon dslr for photo work. I shoot both stills + motion and have a D800 and epic.

 

[David Bitton]

I also have those Nikons and my epic won't be replacing them. What type of photography does your wife do?

Bob,
Take a look at her Flickr page, her Facebook page, or of course her website. Thanks.

 

[David Bitton]

I would definetly say no to this. The scarlet is worlds apart from a nikon dslr for photo work. I shoot both stills + motion and have a D800 and epic.

Thanks.

 

[Mike Yonts]

Judging from her website, there are some things about a Scarlet that she might find useful. Looks like she photographs a lot of kids. With the Scarlet she could set up a shot and roll several minutes of footage, and then pick out just the right frame. It can be a great way to get facial expressions and gestures that tend to appear and disappear (especially with kids) in an instant.

That said, if she has no plans to do any motion work with the Scarlet, she may find that it's more weight, price, and learning-curve than she really needs. What if she rents one with a Nikon mount and does some shooting with her regular lenses? That might be a way to figure out if it's worth pursuing further.

 

[David Bitton]

Judging from her website, there are some things about a Scarlet that she might find useful. Looks like she photographs a lot of kids. With the Scarlet she could set up a shot and roll several minutes of footage, and then pick out just the right frame. It can be a great way to get facial expressions and gestures that tend to appear and disappear (especially with kids) in an instant.

That said, if she has no plans to do any motion work with the Scarlet, she may find that it's more weight, price, and learning-curve than she really needs. What if she rents one with a Nikon mount and does some shooting with her regular lenses? That might be a way to figure out if it's worth pursuing further.

Sounds like a plan. I Googled and found several rental houses in the city. Even if it doesn't turn out to be the right thing, it looks like it will be a fun day finding out. Thanks.

 

[Sarah C.]

I'm a gal that has shot 110 on up through 4x5 (film), cell phone through a big whopper of a BetaCam Digital with recording deck(once). I agree with Mike Yonts... let her try it out. On a personal choice I find mobility and speed are key with shooting people and animals on location!

 

[Adam Levins]

It's a bad idea. Better options out there for stills. I would say you need to doing serious motion work to justify a RED of any kind.

 

[Les Dittert]

Red makes softer images than a DSLR. It's also heavy.
Great motor drive, however!

 

[paul schefz]

compared to what she is used to:
terrible battery life, no auto focus !, super heavy, very hard/almost impossible to hand hold, no real stills function, limited iso, terrible workflow, everything is set up for horizontal shooting (yes, you can shoot vertical but it makes the experience even harder to handle) and a generally totally different way of shooting...
the advantages are: capturing every moment, ability for stills and motion, higher DR
but in order to get great stills from motion you really need the epic.....scarlet will do 4K motion and those stills are no comparison to D800 or even D600....things get interesting at 5K and for that you really need epic....shooting 5K on scarlet is like shooting on high drive on a DSLR only non stop....a lot of frames but not enough for motion.....
i know what i am talking about, i am a still shooter, got a scarlet, now am on epic and use it for everything, even if i don't even need motion....
rent it for a couple of days....i have friends who have shot for 20 years and when they try to wrap their heads around a RED they are very confused.....this is not a canon-nikon switch...

 

[Björn Benckert]

Just buy it she shoots enough and so well so I think you shoule even consider getting it as a toy for her. I think she would very much like to shoot motion with it and I think the ability to capture the moment is quite usefull for what she does for stills. The prerecord function is just not there on the other DSLR's.

I make movies but I have a pretty fledged out still camera... I think it would be very justified to come form the other side, being a still photographer and get a really good film camera... Also from my findings I very much like the quality of the MX sensor much better than both Nikon and Canon. And I think she will make the money back within the first few little films she will make.